Timor Leste
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: Non-signatory Timor-Leste adopted the convention in 2008 but has not taken any steps to join it. Officials indicate that resource constraints have prevented its accession. Timor-Leste voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2017. It last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2011. Timor-Leste is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
Policy
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Government officials have indicated that resource constraints and other prioritieshave prevented Timor-Leste frominitiating the internal process necessary for it to accede to the convention.[1] However, in June 2018, Timor-Leste’s UN representative, Ambassador Marciano Octavio Garcia Da Silva,told the Monitor that it would not be difficult for the country to accede once the newly elected government is settled.[2]
Timor-Leste participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention and joined in the consensus adoption of the convention text in Dublin on 30 May 2008, but did not sign the convention at the Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008. It attended a regional conference on cluster munitions in Bali, Indonesia in November 2009.
Timor-Leste participated as an observer in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2010 and 2011, but has not attended any meetings since then.
In December 2017, Timor-Lestevoted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that urges states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitionsto “join as soon as possible.”[3] It also voted in favor of previous UNGA resolutions promoting implementation and universalization of the convention in 2015 and 2016.[4]
Timor-Leste has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2017.[5]
Timor-Leste is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Timor-Leste is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
[1] In April 2012, a representative from Timor-Leste’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York said there was support for joining the convention but limited human resources, other treaty commitments, and the consolidation of state-building efforts have prevented it from initiating the accession process. Email from Kavita Desai, Advisor, Permanent Mission of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste to the UN in New York, 27 April 2012. In 2010 and 2011, other government officials cited these same reasons for Timor-Leste’s lack of accession to the convention. Emails from Tiago A. Sarmento, Legal Advisor, Ministry of Defense and Security, 10 April 2011; and from Charles Scheiner, Researcher, La’o Hamutuk (Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis), 20 April 2010.
[2] The ambassador said it should not be difficult for Timor-Leste to accede, especially if there are no financial obligations to joining. Cluster Munition Monitor interview with Amb. Marciano Octavio Garcia Da Silva, Permanent Representative of Timor-Leste to the UN in Geneva, Geneva, 11 June 2018.
[3] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 72/54, 4 December 2017.
[4] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 71/45, 5 December 2016; and“Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.
[5] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 72/191, 19 December 2017. Timor-Leste voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2016.